Bears

Listen: Are Bears Leaning Toward Drafting A D-Lineman In 1st Round?

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(CBS) As the Bears finish evaluating prospects at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis today, it leads to a logical question.

After doing all this homework, what player(s) or position are they targeting with their No. 14 overall pick?

“I think they’ve got to go defensive line right now,” Tribune beat writer Brad Biggs told the Mully and Hanley Show on Tuesday morning. “But the beauty of it is they could make a handful of additions in free agency and really change the direction of what they’re going to do in the draft. I don’t think you can invest in the back end unless you see some guy you think is a perennial Pro Bowl player. I don’t know that you can invest in the back end with the holes that they have up front on defense. You look at how they had the defensive line structured this past year, and they didn’t have enough.”

Defensive lineman prospects who project to be available around No. 14 include Missouri end Kony Ealy, Notre Dame tackle Louis Nix and Florida State tackle Timmy Jernigan.

Still, if there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that the Bears defense needs help everywhere — which means this still remains quite unpredictable.

“So much is going to depend what happens before then in the draft and who’s sitting there and how confident they feel,” CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora told the Mully and Hanley Show on Tuesday. “Chances are they are going to be sitting there with four or five kids who make sense (and go), ‘Is there any chance we get a shot at one of them one round back if we wait?’ I think there will be a lot that goes into it, but there’s so many different directions they could go — especially before we’ve gone through free agency, you’re just shooting fish in a barrel.”

Listen to Biggs’ full interview with more thoughts on the draft and free agency below.